Son of Hamas

By Mosab Hassan Yousef

This book first describes in a rational way the evolution of thought and it's subsequent behavior of an Islamic imam’s sanctioning of terror against it's oppressors. He, the father of the author of this book laid claim to the Quran's call for jihad as the protagonist agent. His claim however was one of default based both on the manipulation of men of power and the doctrine of the Quran. Son of Hamas details the systematic oppression of Palestinians, and police mentality akin to that of the 1770 British in our American rise to independence, the Palestinian mind, and their systematic method for continuous agitation of people to foster terror.

As Mosab Yousef approaches his father on the terrorist's killing of innocent Jews his father's answer implies the notion that they are not people. Yousef in the telling of the story draws on his reading of Act:8 where the people stone Stephen and Saul approves. In the context of the story to this point Mosab draws a parallel between the bible and the Quran. He asserts both giving approval to murder. With the Quran approval is found on the top rung of Islamic mandates, jihad. He doesn't quote it in his book so I immediately read Act:8 where the approval was found in forgiveness. In this divergence is the seed for Mosab to move away from the violence between Muslims and Jews and towards Christianity and eventually becomes a baptized Christian.

As the story is told the reader gets first hand experience of how an adult world of violence can shape a child’s mind. Beginning at pre-adolescence in Mosabs life the setting is pre second intifada (1980’s) and at a time where there was a segregation of Muslim Palestinian communities and Jewish communities in Israel and from a child’s view the life style of the Jew was a”one-over-the-other” arrangement where the Jew was far better off. The reality of strife had not set in until the burials at his local cemetery began to increase. This brought Mosab closer to the reality of the situation at hand from a Palestinian perspective. Being as such Mosab sympathized with his people and began throwing rocks and taking up arms, without full understanding the consequences.

Mosabs antics find him in a Israeli prison where the conditions from capture to detainment was brutal and torturous. An American reader fully appraised with our own self criticism would be aghast at the description of his treatment. At this point of the book the reader becomes critical of Israel in its oppression and torture of Palestinians. However this view is soon to change.

Appreciating that Mosab Hassen Yousef was actually the son of the Imam who is deemed one of the founding fathers of Hamas the Israeli intelligence agency decided to recruit him as a spy. To provide a cover rather than release him immediately they put him in a prison where conditions provided by the Israelis were better and this prison was largely dedicated to Hamas prisoners. As it turns out inside that prison Mosab witnesses a much harsher torture regime inflicted by Hamas on Hamas people to be sure they hold to their terrorist ways. Where Mosab’s agreement to spy had yet to be put to the test, what he witnessed convinced him that perhaps the Palestinian people were being manipulated by their own people. This eased his conscience on his role as a spy.

In his role as a spy the details of how Hamas activity works around a fog of procedure aimed at always keeping the Palistanian people agitated and dis-satisfied with their Israeli neighbor. Mosab begins to realize that perhaps the Palestinians were not being oppressed and the military law was merely a reaction to Palestinian civil unrest. The book clearly points to Yasser Arafat as a master puppeteer at the head of the PLA for his own selfish gains. When a peace agreement was offered for a Palestinian State within the State of Israel most Palestinians saw it as a workable solution for peace and were willing to sign the agreement. Arafat did not sign it and it is Mosab’s feeling from what he heard from inside is that agreement would mean an end to the bountiful flow if international funding to the PLA treasury for continued conflict. It was this flow of funding that caused people to stop their productive lives working side by side with Jews and instead takes up arms against them. This created friction between Hamas and the PLA and positioned the PLA to sell out both Hamas and his father to portray Hamas as the terrorist cell. Mosab’s father was manipulated to make statements in behalf of Hammas’s cause without knowing where the power was coming form or what the real agenda of the statements were. He, still ignorant to cause and effect of his actions, conceded in the name of Islam. With the death of Arafat the manipulation continued leaving Mosab and his father, the loved and blindly followed Imam puzzled as to who was pulling the strings. As it turns out, the men at the controls are actually not devout Muslims. They were men of selfish ambition taking advantage of a people’s religious doctrine that encourages jihad. I have read many other books where this is the case.

While this is a book review, the details are in this must read book. It helps a westerner including Russians and those of our brothers in India who daily meet with Muslim born terrorism, better understand the mind of a Muslim involved in terror. It helps you better understand how that mind is formulated. That Muslim mind is formulated from within Islam’s current agenda and not strictly founded in the Quran. The Western reaction has yet to find the keys to peace and wont if they allow the argument to be founded in a book debate. Ironically, is it truly a question of surrender to Islam, as the Quran spells out? While the doctrine of Christianity says surrender to God is the path to peace, one begins to question whether God and Allah are the same concept.

Alternatively, like in WWII’s Hitler it takes evil minds with ambitious agendas to dupe a people. Those people must have a historic formulation of traits that allow for the deception to give birth to terror, to be dupped. It is my opinion that the teachings of Islam lay the ground work for easy manipulation of people to commit terrorist acts. Today we see it in Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Russia, India, Europe, and here in America. Islam’s doctrine is suspect, but not the culprit. Because there is an overwhelming mountain of evidence where I will mention the word madrasa, the question seems to loom; are we at war with Islam or are we at war with terrorist, who happen to be Muslim? Is the answer in our strategy to fight that war? It was once a strategy that States that harbor the seeds to terrorism (madrassas) were the enemy. The new strategy is we are not at war with Islam and will never be at war with Islam as emphatically stated by our current president Obama. The word terrorist, code for gorilla soldiers, soldiers who are recruited in these Stated funded madrassas, soldiers who plot not in jungles or hills but in back rooms of our neighborhoods, has yet to be used in a strategy to combat those that intend us harm. In fact the word combat is now not applied to our mission in Iraq, albeit we have 4,500 combat trained U.S. soldiers still engaged in combat there. This new Obama strategy is akin to the strategy that was our undoing in Vietnam and Neville Chamberlain’s strategy in 1938. Is Obama the dupped ore is he part of the duping agenda of the power brokers of Islam? The fact that I raise that question alone raises another question. If we have doubt, do we have the right commander in chief?

In the end of the book Mosab is offered a ticket out of Israel. The offer was to Europe. Mosab refused as he saw his new home in America. This is something to be proud of and Mosab is someone that we should pay attention to. His message helps to understand what is going on yet falls short of the magic key to peace. Mosab Hassan Yousef’s visa is running out. He is at risk of having to return to a land where he would likely be meet doom. Since this legal immigrant is a contributing member of the American society with a message that must be heard by all people, could our questionable leader make a step to remove the doubt and write an executive order, a power he is fond of, to keep Mosab in a place where he can contribute to peace?